Misc. and Vincula

Misc:
Since the last posting, continued with studies, wrote essays, ritual, and about special project, and was accepted for being inducted as a Companion in the AODA. Themselves visited in June, which was a splendid visit and we got to take them to the Sunwheel, Walden's Pond, the Awen Tree (for giving their lectures), and of course around the farm. Both L and I were both made Companions during their visit, and S was made an Adept, and also an Archbishop in the UGF and Archdruid of the East for the AODA. A wild time indeed!

Since then, mostly been a bit out of focus, having a hard time settling on any one thing without quite often _literally_ falling asleep. So I'm sort of doing a light multi-tasking thing right now -- about what I can handle in this weather anyway -- and touching briefly on things as they come to my attention. Picked up an interesting brief contact from CA when I was first really looking at the wildfires. No vindictiveness or malice, just satisfaction that the fires were clearing out all the brush -- long overdue. Unfortunate for the folks living there, but the land is actually coming back into balance, strange as that might sound to some folks. Even the mayor pro-tem for one of the threatened communities commented that the nearby brush had been needing clearing for 50 years...

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Most of my dreams have been quite fragmentary, but one word stuck from one of them, even though I've been forgetting to looking up for the past few weeks.... vincula. No, no idea...

So, looking it up....

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Vincula:

From a medical dictionary,

Vin·cu·lum (vngky-lm)

n. pl. vin·cu·lums or vin·cu·la (-l)

A uniting band or bandlike structure, such as a frenum or ligament.

Note: Plural is vincula. Also, from other sites, it ties/unites, but also limits movement. In the case of the body, this generally a good thing, because otherwise mammals would have a harder time moving in a coordinated fashion :D

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From Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry:

vin·cu·lum

Pronunciation:

\ˈviŋ-kyə-ləm\

Function:

noun

Inflected Form(s):

plural vin·cu·lums or vin·cu·la \-lə\

Etymology:

Latin, from vincire to bind

Date:

1661

1 : a unifying bond : link, tie 2 : a straight horizontal mark placed over two or more members of a compound mathematical expression and equivalent to parentheses or brackets about them (as in a-b-c=a-[b-c])

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Also found a company called Vincula Industries, Inc. Here's their cover mission statement:

We are the Connection. We at Vincula see ourselves as a conduit or channel delivering the best in American products, technology and services to a worldwide client base.

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Then there is St. Peter ad Vincula (St. Peter in Chains/Bonds), in Pennal, Wales:
http://www.castlewales.com/pennal_church.html

And this one in England (it is the Welsh church's sister chapel in London, at the Tower):
http://www.st-peter-ad-vincula.org.uk/history.html

There is a third in N. Lincolnshire, but it doesn't appear to be connected to the other two.


I found the first church interesting as it was founded in the 6th century by Celts from Brittany, and also Owain Glyndwr visited Pennal in 1406. The last assembly of a free Wales was at this church, summoned together by Owain Glyndwr.

The churchyard is an oval, which would suggest a pre-Christian sacred site.

Couple other tidbits from the Castlewales site:

11. Throughout the Middle Ages, Pennal was one of three chapels-of-ease that came under the care of Tywyn Church, the other two being Llanfihangel-y-Pennant and Llanfair (Tal-y-Llyn).

12. Green Man in the East Window is the only stained glass version of this ancient figure in any church or chapel in Wales, and probably also in England.

I note 11. because L and I have leapt back into reading The Dark Is Rising sequence, and are currently reading The Grey King. Interesting that I finally get around to looking up Vincula at this point, hm? Because right now we are at the point where Will has found out out the old name of Tal-y-Llyn. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tal-y-llyn_Lake)

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Then there was the weirdness of it apparently being the name for the center of a Borg ship -- although since they're all connected to one another, I guess that's as good a name as any. I stopped looking after I came across the handcuff site...

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So, unity, bond, tie, connection, restriction, limit. Wonder which one(s) pertained to the dream? Now that I've looked it up, if it comes up again maybe I'll remember more of the dream. All I really remember of the dream was that it was one of those types where a small group of people were on a mission of some sort, sigh. Not sure what for, but I believe it was information-gathering.

Got that down finally. Back to being hot and muddling along best I can on things.